


Now At Last the Worst is Over

by CertifiedPissWizard



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Cooking, F/F, God - Freeform, Kissing, Post-Episode: s02e17-18 Juno Steel and the Time Gone By, They just love eachother, anyways theres dancing too, but like its gay so what do you expect, copious amounts of religioius imagery, finding the old and new rhythyms of their love, post-reunion best bud, seiously, what if it was tender i asked and then answered yes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:48:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27511048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CertifiedPissWizard/pseuds/CertifiedPissWizard
Summary: It's the easiest and hardest thing Buddy and Vespa, Vespa and Buddy, ever do, reuniting. They make it work.
Relationships: Buddy Aurinko/Vespa Ilkay
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	Now At Last the Worst is Over

Vespa missed her, not in that way that burns, but in the way of “who comforts Buddy when she needs it? Who holds her the rare times she cries? Who helps her write those scripts of hers? Who double checks her heist plans? Who has her back?” It, if Vespa was being honest with herself, haunted her. Maybe that’s why, when they’re having to learn each other again, Vespa sticks close- not that she’s the only one. The way Buddy looks at her, still trying to believe that Vespa isn’t dead. There are all these light shoulder bumps, these looks to make sure that this time wasn’t going to be the time that it wasn’t okay.

Buddy looks at Vespa like a supplicant to some ancient Earthen goddess. She looks at her like Vespa is a miracle, a gift from above, like she is something divine. It does wonders for a woman’s ego, being looked like like that. Vespa- she probably looks at Buddy the same way, though. Buddy- she’s really there. She is solid and there. Vespa was dying in the desert, parched, and Buddy is an oasis, water from nowhere, a godsend. Each moment with her feels almost like an act of worship, of reaching out to something greater and begging for more time.

Buddy can cook now. Honestly, that’s hardly the biggest change, but in some ways it feels like it. They sidle up in the kitchen together, alternating between cutting and watching the stove, alternating between who cooks what part of the meal. It was like a dance. Like they used to do sometimes. Holding each other close and twirling to one of the music machines littering the whole province. Each moment together again the same sort of rush as being dipped. “Bud.” It’s a soft breath as Buddy dips her on one of the nights where they just dance, nobody watching. She’d ached for this. She really had.

“Vespa.” Buddy’s voice is even softer, if that’s possible. “Oh, Vespa.” She starts crying. Vespa isn’t sure how to comfort her anymore, she realizes. It’s one of the worst things imaginable- even worse than not helping Buddy pin her hair back in the mornings, even worse that not having those hands touch up her makeup, even worse than all the past they’ve both lost to time and memory. The worst thing is not knowing whether touch will help, or words, or space, or- she wraps Buddy loosely in her arms and ignores the sharp pain she feels. “You’re here. You’re not dead.” Buddy sounds desperate, a sound her voice has never made. The great Buddy Aurinko doesn’t get desperate, and she doesn’t make mistakes, either, at least not in Vespa’s eyes. And Vespa doesn’t know what to do, so she reaches out and holds anyways, wrapping herself tightly around Buddy. If she cries some too, well, it’s nobody’s business.

Vespa makes one of those shitty jokes she’s made so many times around Buddy, and Buddy doesn’t tiredly finish the punchline. When she realizes she should have- before she says anything- Vespa says it’s a chance to tell all of those jokes again. Buddy smiles, the sun breaking through the clouds, answered prayers, the radiance of some holy figure.

Just like there are so many differences, though, there are so many things that are the same. Buddy still writes those nerdy speeches of hers, making sure everything is perfectly phrased for maximum impact. Vespa sees her doing one of those, trying to sell Jet on something. Jet who gets a first name because he’s Buddy’s best friend. “You considered-“ She makes one of those comments on Buddy’s wordings like she used to, and Buddy puts the speech aside to kiss her senseless. A good use of time, in Vespa’s opinion. The speech is- well, it’s just as moving as all of Buddy’s are, even when she knows the words as intimately as she knows the sound of Buddy’s laugh.

They stay up one night talking- about what happened- how they changed- the shape of who they are- what new triggers and landmines have sprouted up.

It’s strange, these changes. This coming home again.

Buddy makes pancakes for Vespa, and Vespa dons her best food judge, and they both collapse laughing. Buddy helps her with her lipstick, and then they smudge it with those soft little kisses one after the other after the other. Vespa helps pin Buddy’s hair back, and Buddy gives Vespa a haircut.

One time, when Vespa was learning to walk in heels she kept falling over and over, tripping. Buddy caught her each time, asking “Come here often, gorgeous?” Vespa trips, and Buddy catches her like always, and in an echo of the past, in an echo of one of those bright moments impossible to forget, asks, “Come here often, gorgeous?”

Vespa leans up to kiss her from her spot in Buddy’s arms, and she says, “Not often enough,” into Buddy’s lips.

So many things are so terribly different, but they’re there. They have each other. They have those memories of the past and that future that lies ahead, stretching on into infinity, reaching out into the stars for them.


End file.
